Even the children of soldiers had not been evacuated, with calamitous results when the married quarters of Victoria Barracks received a direct hit. devised the Morrison shelter (named for Home Secretary Herbert Stanley Morrison) as an alternative to the Anderson shelter. Weighing 46,328 tonnes, Titanic was to be the largest manmade moveable object the world had ever seen. Belfast's Albert Clock tower is sinking - it leans by four feet. While every effort has been made to follow citation style rules, there may be some discrepancies. Video, 00:01:03One-minute World News, Isabel Oakeshott: Why I leaked Hancock's messages. Hundreds of incendiary and many high-explosive bombs were dropped, doing little material damage but causing many casualties. He believed that this was being done already but it was inevitable that a certain number of civilian lives should be lost in the course of heavy bombing from the air". The famous Harland and Wolff cranes are called Samson and Goliath. Other Belfast factories manufactured gun mountings. However Belfast was not mentioned again by the Nazis. Both planes quickly proved their mettle against German bombers, and Germanys best fighter, the Bf 109, was of limited use as an escort due to its relatively short operating range. The phrase Business as usual, written in chalk on boarded-up shop windows, exemplified the British determination to keep calm and carry on as best they could. Many in Northern Ireland thought that Belfast was outside the range of the Luftwaffe. The 2017 film Zoo depicts an air raid during the Belfast Blitz. Reviewed by: Geoffrey Roberts. By 6am, within two hours of the request for assistance, 71 firemen with 13 fire tenders from Dundalk, Drogheda, Dublin, and Dn Laoghaire were on their way to cross the Irish border to assist their Belfast colleagues. In another building, the York Street Mill, one of its massive sidewalls collapsed on to Sussex and Vere Streets, killing all those who remained in their homes. He was replaced by 54-year-old Sir Basil Brooke on 1 May. Wherever Churchill is hiding his war material we will go. Belfast was the birthplace of the RMS Titanic, the world' most famous ship which, when it was constructed in the early 1900s, was longer than the height of the world's tallest building at 882 feet and six inches in length. Streets heavily bombed in the city centre included High Street, Ann Street, Callender Street, Chichester Street, Castle Street, Tomb Street, Bridge Street (effectively obliterated), Rosemary Street, Waring Street, North Street, Victoria Street, Donegall Street, York Street, Gloucester Street, and East Bridge Street. 2023 BBC. C.S Lewis was born in Belfast, and the nearby countryside helped inspire The Chronicles of Narnia. The initial human cost of the Blitz was lower than the government had expected, but the level of destruction exceeded the governments dire predictions. These private air-raid shelters were Anderson shelters, constructed of sheets of corrugated galvanised iron covered in earth. At nightfall the Northern Counties Station was packed from platform gates to entrance gates and still refugees were coming along in a steady stream from the surrounding streets Open military lorries were finally put into service and even expectant mothers and mothers with young children were put into these in the rather heavy drizzle that lasted throughout the evening. There is no slacking in our loyalty. There [is] ground for thinking that the enemy could not easily reach Belfast in force except during a period of moonlight. The wartime output of the yard included aircraft carriers HMS Formidable and HMS Unicorn, cruisers such as HMS Belfast and more than 130 other vessels used by the Royal Navy. The Blitz began at around 4 pm on September 7, 1940, when German bomber planes first appeared over London. Major Sen O'Sullivan reported on the intensity of the bombing in some areas, such as the Antrim Road, where bombs "fell within fifteen to twenty yards of one another." Belfast was bombed by the Nazis in World War II. Since most casualties were caused by falling masonry rather than by blast, they provided effective shelter for those who had them. Eduard Hempel, the German Minister to Ireland, visited the Irish Ministry for External Affairs to offer sympathy and attempt an explanation. This type of shelteressentially a low steel cage large enough to contain two adults and two small childrenwas designed to be set up indoors and could serve as a refuge if the building began to collapse. The couple, who ran a children's home, stayed with Anna's parents, William and Harriette Denby, and her sisters, Dot and Isa, at Evelyn Gardens, off the Cavehill Road, in the north of the city. Another attacked Bangor, killing five. The Belfast Blitz consisted of four German air raids on strategic targets in the city of Belfast in Northern Ireland, in April and May 1941 during World War II, causing high casualties. Another defensive measure employed by the British was barrage balloonslarge oval-shaped unmanned balloons with stabilizing tail finsinstalled in and around major target areas. Elsewhere in the skies over Britain, Nazi official Rudolph Hess chose that same evening to parachute into Scotland on a quixotic and wholly unauthorized peace mission. Half of the city's housing was damaged over the course of all the raids. Jimmy Doherty, an air raid warden (who later served in London during the V1 and V2 blitz), who wrote a book on the Belfast blitz; We were in exceptional good humour knowing that we were going for a new target, one of Englands last hiding places, said one pilot of the raid. NI WW2 veterans honoured by France. Learn how your comment data is processed. A force of 180 bombers dropped 750 bombs - including 203 tonnes of high explosives - and 29,000 incendiaries over a five-hour period. The Royal Air Force announced that Squadron Leader J.W.C. Read about our approach to external linking. Although casualties were heavy, at no time did they approach the estimates that had been made before the war, and only a fraction of the available hospital and ambulance capacity was ever utilized. Simpson shot down one of the Heinkels over Downpatrick. The most heavily bombed cities outside London were Liverpool and Birmingham. Belfast was Ireland's industrial home, famous for tobacco, rope-making, linen, and ship-building, which made it the powerhouse it was. As of October 2020, the population of Belfast is about 350,000 people. Many "arrived in Fermanagh having nothing with them only night shirts". (Great War casualties) had died in hospital beds, their eyes had been reverently closed, their hands crossed to their breasts. "There are plans for one but there isn't one yet. By the time the raid was over, at least 744 people had lost their lives, including some living in places such as Newtownards, Bangor and Londonderry. 11 churches, two hospitals and two schools were destroyed. The 'Blitz' - from the German term Blitzkrieg ('lightning war') - was the sustained campaign of aerial bombing attacks on British towns and cities carried out by the Luftwaffe (German Air Force) from September 1940 until May 1941. A victory for the Luftwaffe in the Battle of Britain would indeed have exposed Great Britain to invasion and occupation. No searchlights were set up in the city at the time, and these only arrived on 10 April. Video, 00:01:09The Spitfire turns 80, The German bombing of Coventry. Video, 00:01:37Thanks, but no big speech, in Ken Bruce's sign off, Tear gas fired at Greece train crash protesters. 29 - Belfast was once bigger than Dublin After the first week of September, although night bombing on a large scale continued, the large mass attacks by day, which had proved so costly to the Luftwaffe during the Battle of Britain, were replaced by smaller parties coming over in successive waves. Later, guided by the raging fires caused by the first attack, a second group of planes began another assault that lasted until 4:30 the following morning. Train after train and bus after bus were filled with those next in line. Some had received food, others were famished. Lecturer of History, Queens University, Belfast, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Belfast_Blitz&oldid=1136721396, During the war years, Belfast shipyards built or converted over 3,000 navy vessels, repaired more than 22,000 others and launched over half a million tons of merchant shipping over 140. Read about our approach to external linking. In early 1941 the Germans launched another wave of attacks, this time focusing on ports. Find out how it began, what the Germans hoped to achieve and how it severe it was, plus we visit nine places affected by the attacks. The Titanic was built in Belfast. By British mainland blitz standards, casualties were light. Also, on Queens Island, stood the Short and Harland Ltd. Aircraft Factory. So had Clydeside until recently. Prior to the "Belfast Blitz" there were only 200 public shelters in the city, although around 4,000 households had built their own private shelters. The Luftwaffe crews returned to their base in Northern France and reported that Belfast's defences were, "inferior in quality, scanty and insufficient". [25] He followed up with his "they are our people" speech, made in Castlebar, County Mayo, on Sunday 20 April 1941 (Quoted in the Dundalk Democrat dated Saturday 26 April 1941): In the past, and probably in the present, too, a number of them did not see eye to eye with us politically, but they are our people we are one and the same people and their sorrows in the present instance are also our sorrows; and I want to say to them that any help we can give to them in the present time we will give to them whole-heartedly, believing that were the circumstances reversed they would also give us their help whole-heartedly Frank Aiken, the Irish Minister for the Co-ordination of Defensive Measures was in Boston, Massachusetts at the time. The Germans, however, saw Belfast as a legitimate target due to the shipyards in the city that were contributing to Britain's war efforts. An earlier flight on Oct. 18 allowed the crew to plot several targets in the city. Looking back on the Belfast Blitz, Oberleutnant Becker signed off with the following words: A war is the worst thing that can happen to Mankind. Tommy Henderson, an Independent Unionist MP in the House of Commons of Northern Ireland, summed up the feeling when he invited the Minister of Home Affairs to Hannahstown and the Falls Road, saying "The Catholics and the Protestants are going up there mixed and they are talking to one another. Video, 00:02:54, At least 17 dead in Jakarta fuel storage depot fire. [19], 220,000 people fled from the city. These balloons, the largest of which were some 60 feet (18 metres) long, were essentially an airspace denial tool. and Major Sen O'Sullivan, who produced a detailed report for the Dublin government. The "pothole blitz" is a common short-term initiative to combat storm weather damage. His reply was: "We here today are in a state of war and we are prepared with the rest of the United Kingdom and Empire to face all the responsibilities that imposes on the Ulster people. Video, 00:01:23, Watch: Matt Hancock message row in 83 seconds, Isabel Oakeshott: Why I leaked Hancock's messages. This view was probably influenced by the decision of the IRA Army Council to support Germany. Up Next. A modern bomb census has attempted to pinpoint the location of every bomb dropped on London during the Blitz, and the visualization of that data makes clear how thoroughly the Luftwaffe saturated the city. Neighbouring residential areas were also hit. A Raid From Above The creeping TikTok bans. There [is] ground for thinking that the enemy could not easily reach Belfast in force except during a period of moonlight. O'Sullivan felt that the whole civil defence sector was utterly overwhelmed. On Nov. 30, 1940, a lone Luftwaffe plane flew across the Ards Peninsula unobserved and reported back to Berlin. Three vessels nearing completion at Harland and Wolff's were hit as was its power station. Belfast suffered a series of bombing raids in the spring of 1941, which became known as the 'Blitz of Belfast'. And even then, Westminster stated it was not ample provision; Stormont still worried about the costs to industry. It is perhaps true that many saved their lives running but I am afraid a much greater number lost them or became casualties."[20]. The Belfast Blitz was a series of devastating Luftwaffe air raids that took place in Northern Ireland during the Second World War. A short respite followed, until a widespread series of night raids on April 7 included some targets in the London area. In the east of the city, Westbourne and Newcastle Streets on the Newtownards Road, Thorndyke Street off the Albertbridge Road and Ravenscroft Avenue were destroyed or damaged. St. Giles, Cripplegate, and St. Mary Wolnooth, also in the city, were damaged, while the Dutch church in Austin Friars, dating from the 14th century and covering a larger area than any church in the city of London, St. Pauls alone excepted, was totally destroyed.